Recent Read

Ice Queen

This novel is long on guilty conscience and rambling prose and short on plot. The story of an orphaned woman who is "frozen" emotionally and how she changes after a lightening strike and a new hot romance. I give it a 4 out of 10

The hard way

The Hard Way is a decent thriller/mystery novel. The main character, Reacher, is intriguing, and the slot started out fast paced. Unfortunately, although the story started out well, it didn't keep up. I figured out the mystery half way through the book and the show down dragged on and on. I rate it a 5 out of 10.

Shantaram

The semi autobiographical story of an Australian fugitive who escapes prison and holes up in Bombay, India. He befriends the locals, lives in the slums, then a rural village, returns to set up a free clinic in a slum. Little by little the main character works his way up the Bombay organized crime. After several hundreds pages (the whole book is close to 1000 pages) and into a guerrilla work against the Russian in the mountains of Afghanistan, I got burnt out. There is a strange love triangle too. The details of the underworld culture and Bombay life were fascinating. But the plot dragged on. I rate it a 6 out of 10.

Shantaram

The semi autobiographical story of an Australian fugitive who escapes prison and holes up in Bombay, India. He befriends the locals, lives in the slums, then a rural village, returns to set up a free clinic in a slum. Little by little the main character works his way up the Bombay organized crime. After several hundreds pages (the whole book is close to 1000 pages) and into a guerrilla work against the Russian in the mountains of Afghanistan, I got burnt out. There is a strange love triangle too. The details of the underworld culture and Bombay life were fascinating. But the plot dragged on. I rate it a 6 out of 10.

Black swan green

I really enjoyed Black Swan Green a largely autiobiographical novel about a 12 year old boy in small town in Britain in 1982. I really enjoyed the author's previous novel, Cloud Atlas, and this has alot of the same elements. Each chapter is a self contained short story, but there are cliff hangers and an over arching plot. It was well written and fun to read all the pre-teen slang from the 80's. I rate it a 9 out of 10.

Black swan green

I really enjoyed Black Swan Green the memoirs of 12 year old boy in small town in Britain in 1982. I really enjoyed the author's previous novel, Cloud Atlas, and this has alot of the same elements. Each chapter is a self contained short story, but there are cliff hangers and an over arching plot. It was well written and fun to read all the pre-teen slang from the 80's. I rate it a 9 out of 10.